CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Travel permits sought
More Chinese applied for travel permits on Thursday than any other day previously in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of China said yesterday. Next month’s holiday could be “especially crowded,” as 46,482 Chinese applied for entry permits — more than five times the number of Chinese visitors allowed into the nation each day, the association said. “The situation is unprecedented,” said Hsu Kao-ching (許高慶), a former association secretary-general. Judging from the number of openings each day, many of the tour groups that applied on Thursday will likely only be able to come after the holiday, which runs from Feb. 18 to Feb. 23. Independent visitors could be able to come as early as Feb. 4. The government allows a daily maximum of 5,000 Chinese tourists traveling in groups and 4,000 traveling as individuals. Hsu said he hopes the government will be more flexible and ease restrictions during the high-demand period.
CHARITY
Donation made to BBA
The government donated US$50,000 to an organization headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi to help with efforts to save children targeted by human traffickers and sold into forced labor. Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) announced the donation at a dinner party he hosted on Thursday for Satyarthi, his wife, Sumedha Kailash, and three executives of Satyarthi’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), or Save the Childhood Movement. Lin said the funds will be used for a one-year program titled “Care and Protection of Survivors of Trafficking and Forced Labor,” which is expected to benefit 300 children. Lin said the government believes that those with a common goal can make the world better through united action. Satyarthi thanked the government for realizing his wish to visit Taiwan and described the nation as an example that proves benevolence can become a global movement.
SOCIETY
Weddings on the upswing
A total of 149,287 couples tied the knot in Taiwan last year, the highest number in the past three years, according to a report released yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior. The number of marriages registered was 1,651 more than in 2013, and 5,903 more than in 2012, the report said. The record for the number of marriages over the past decade was set in 2011, the centenary of the Republic of China, when 165,327 couples wed, exceeding the previous record of 154,866 set in 2008. The most popular wedding date last year was May 20, when 6,055 marriages were registered, while the second-most popular date was Feb. 14, when 2,742 couples tied the knot. In Mandarin, the words for “520” sound roughly like “I love you.”
TRAVEL
Shopping in Japan popular
Taiwanese traveling in Japan spend 30 percent of their holiday budget on shopping, statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism showed. Taiwanese visitors spent an average of about NT$33,000 per person in the first three quarters of last year, the ministry said. The top five items on their shopping lists were souvenirs; medicine and healthcare products; food and beverages; clothes, shoes and bags; and cosmetics. Favorite snack foods included Jaga Pokkuru, a potato snack dubbed “three French fry brothers” (薯條三兄弟) in Taiwan for its logo, and Tokyo Banana, a sponge cake in the shape of a banana.
ENTERTAINMENT
’A Fool’ to screen in Taiwan
Chinese actor Chen Jianbin’s (陳建斌) directorial debut A Fool (一個勺子) will be among 10 Chinese films allowed to be shown in Taiwan this year after a drawing of random lots by the Ministry of Culture on Thursday. Chen won the best lead actor and best new director awards with A Fool at the Golden Horse Awards last year. The film is about a Chinese farmer who finds a homeless man — the titular fool — on his way home from town one day. The farmer, played by Chen, takes the man home with him and helps him find his family, only to be accused of human trafficking. The Nightingale (夜鶯), China’s entry for the best foreign-language film at the 87th Academy Awards, as well as Dearest (親愛的) and The Coffin in the Mountain (殯棺), both of which were nominated for Golden Horse Awards last year, were also among the 10 films chosen, the ministry said.
DIPLOMACY
Canadian lawmakers to visit
A group of Canadian lawmakers are due to arrive in Taiwan today on a one-week visit to learn more about the development of bilateral ties, which Taipei hopes will help to advance relations between the two nations. Nina Grewal of the House of Commons and Michael MacDonald of the Senate are to lead the delegation, which also includes lawmakers Ryan Cleary, Annick Papillon, John Barlow and David Yurdiga, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. During their visit, the lawmakers plan to learn more about the development of the nation’s economy, politics and its relations with China, the ministry said in a statement. They are scheduled to visit the legislature, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agriculture and the Straits Exchange Foundation, the statement said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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